


A Bad Influence

by mongoose_bite



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Post-Season/Series 06, Pre-Relationship, Sparring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 19:07:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15079727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mongoose_bite/pseuds/mongoose_bite
Summary: Allura's next task is to prepare a full report of the events that lead to the Castle of Lions's destruction for the coalition forces. She will spare no detail, and she will certainly not spare herself.Kolivan doesn't think this is the wisest approach.





	A Bad Influence

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so _so much_ went on in series six I honestly wasn't sure where to start. So I started here, with my favourite aliens having a fight and a talk. But I feel like this is only the smallest scratch on the surface. I felt for Allura so much this season. What was the rest of the resistance up to though? It's gonna be an awkward debrief. Anyway, come find me on [tumblr](http://mongoose-bite.tumblr.com/) if you want.

 

The worst part was the best part. In those few moments on the edge of waking Allura's emotions arrived before her rational faculties, and they were still playing catch-up. She'd feel a bloom of warmth and anticipation in her chest, a delightful and unfamiliar emotion she'd leant into so much recently, an escape from the fraught and exhausting reality of the rest of her existence.

She liked him. She _liked_ him, and he liked her.

Then she remembered he betrayed her.

And that warmth in her chest abruptly curdled and shrivelled and shrunk down to a cold, hard stone of guilt that settled unhappily in her stomach, and it was time to get up and start the day.

Keith and Shiro were both injured and the paladins only had one healing pod between them running on its own stored power. Instead of starting the long journey back to Earth, Krolia got in touch with the Blade, and they made their way to the nearest outpost to rest and recover, now the immediate threats had passed.

The rest of the Coalition forces had to be informed of the latest developments and Allura realised with a stab of guilt that in focusing all her energy on working with Lotor she'd almost forgotten their existence.

They deserved better of her, and they were going to get it.

To her surprise Kolivan himself arrived in a small ship about twenty vargas after they'd landed at the base, which was hidden beneath a glacier on a small moon inhabited by several thousand species of lichen and the small, wiry creatures that grazed it. Keith and Shiro had been loaded into healing pods, and it was a relief to know they were going to be all right, physically at least.

Allura went to the docking bay to greet the Leader of the Blades, unsurprised to see Krolia was already there. Allura was looking forward to getting to know her better; maybe she'd have some free time in the next five doboshes or so. If she was lucky. Focus. One thing at a time; Kolivan was here. He removed his mask as he disembarked from his ship, his expression as inscrutable as always.

“Kolivan, it's good to see you.”

“Princess.” He bowed politely.

Krolia saluted. “Leader.”

“I received your report, Krolia. We'll discuss your next deployment later.” Pause. “It's good to see you in one piece.”

“It's been a while.”

Allura just wanted to get this over with. At least the galra weren't much for small talk, and Kolivan accompanied her to an operations room to debrief. He filled her in concisely and clearly on what the Coalition had been up to, and told her that Matt was well and had been contacted.

Then it was her turn.

Allura laid it all out. If they couldn't trust her judgement, at least no one could fault her honesty as she went over exactly what she'd done to further Lotor's plans, and how easily she'd been mislead.

It had almost cost them everything. The loss of the Castle would be felt keenly by everyone. Even now, she couldn't quite believe she'd never walk its shining halls again.

Kolivan didn't interrupt her. When she was done, the silence fell heavily between them; the outpost was very quiet. No rumble of engines, or humming of life-support and gravity generation, just the oppressive knowledge of the thousands of tons of ice above their heads.

“So where's Lotor now?” Kolivan asked. “Could he come back?”

Allura snapped her head up. She hadn't thought of that.

“I don't know,” she said. “His ship has the ability to open rifts, but its systems would have been entirely overloaded. We barely made it out in time. I would have saved him if I'd been able to. I would have tried.” She slumped in her chair, “Even if he didn't deserve it.”

Some part of her hoped he'd come back, and she gritted her teeth.

“I want to apologise, to you and the Coalition, for my lapse in judgement,” she said. “I was inexcusably stupid. He kept telling me we were continuing my father's work, but my father wasn't the one who was obsessed with harnessing quintessence from the rift for its energy. That was Honerva! That was his plan and it was right in front of my face the whole time,” she said bitterly.

“Don't,” Kolivan said.

“Don't what?”

“Lotor betrayed all of us, galra, alteans, and the Coalition forces, not just you. That is all anyone needs to know. Flagellating yourself publicly will only destabilise the Coalition further.”

She stared at him, feeling oddly hurt but knowing he was probably right all the same.

“Would you have trusted Lotor?”

“I don't know. Perhaps.”

“Really?”

“I trust you, after all.” He stood up. “But if you desperately want to be punished for your error, I will oblige. Get your armour, you're going to need it, Princess.”

She knew a challenge when she saw one.

“We'll see about that.”

The outpost had a training room. Allura got the impression the Blades did little else during their downtime. It had long been unused, a thin layer of dust on the floor, and the air inside felt very still.

Kolivan ignored the various training weapons in a rack against the wall, and drew his blade, which made up Allura's mind. She'd been ambivalent about this idea, but they were doing this and so her bayard flared to life.

The galra didn't move. The glowing lights on his mask told her even less than his face usually did, but he was clearly waiting for her to make the first move.

She moved. She flung her whip at him and he dodged, and the second time he deflected with his blade before trying to close the gap. It was almost polite, she thought, each too skilled to be easily lured into an opening.

But she didn't need an opening. She had a whip. The next time he tried to attack she didn't deflect, instead ducking out of the way and lashing out at his leg with her weapon. The end wrapped itself around his ankle and she braced herself and heaved him off his feet, feeling slightly smug to see the big galra go down.

She didn't feel so smug when instead of fighting her he flipped, bounced off his hands, and planted his other foot in her midsection hard enough to send her flying.

She had to let him go or lose the whip, and bruised and winded she rolled out of the way as he brought his blade down where she'd landed.

He wasn't so polite now. Allura snarled in pain. I'm so sick of everything, she thought. So sick of feeling bad, sick of being responsible, of putting everything in the universe ahead of myself. I'm going to put you in a healing pod! She launched herself at him, flaying his defences. She might have been yelling, she wasn't sure, losing herself in a frenzy unlike the usual flowing style she'd been taught to fight in.

She could leave herself open safely as long as she didn't let up, didn't give him a chance to counteract. She was going to break right through his defences; he could block if he chose and she'd break his fucking arms.

And Kolivan took it. He recoiled in pain sometimes, trying as best he could to absorb her attacks, but he waited her out.

He had to crack sometime. She was pushing him, step by step, across the room. Once his back hit the wall it would be over.

She didn't quite get him that far. He made a sudden move back, and as she closed the gap and attacked again he let her whip ensnare his hand, and he pulled her right off her feet, throwing her over his head. She twisted in mid air, trying to regain some control in vain before she slammed into the wall, and she landed, knees bent and aching, on the floor.

“Feeling better?”

She looked up, braced to attack again. But Kolivan had his blade sheathed, and his hands out. Part of her wanted to keep fighting, but this was a duel of mutual consent, and she relaxed and slumped to the floor, taking off her helmet and setting it beside her.

Kolivan took his mask off and she could see how hard he was breathing as he too sat down, a polite distance away.

They caught their breath in silence for a while, and Allura realised she did feel calmer. Not every battle had to be life and death, and it felt good to go hand to hand again. The last time she'd fought without a lion was, well, when she tossed Lotor hard enough to make him bounce. She smiled faintly at the thought. It had been satisfying in hindsight.

“What you did wasn't really so bad,” Kolivan said.

Allura looked at him in surprise. She thought battle had been a replacement for words, not a prelude.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it's not uncommon when you're young to get your heart bruised by a bad influence, is it?”

_Now_ he had her attention. If her ears could move she'd have pricked them up. She'd never imagine Kolivan would have relationship advice, and she still had trouble believing it.

“How would _you_ know?” It might have been rude but he did start this line of conversation.

He looked at her. “Maybe I was the bad influence.”

Allura burst out laughing. He looked so serious when he said it too, but the thought of him being some sort of ladies' man was too much.

“I'm sorry,” she said. Not sorry at all, her bruised stomach aching, and her eyes filling with tears. “It's very rude of me.”

“Do I look offended? It's good to see you laugh.” He was smiling faintly.

Allura coughed, and managed to get a hold of herself. Amazing, she thought. He was actually pretty good at this.

“You'll be fine, Princess,” Kolivan said. “You'll know better next time.”

“There will never be a next time,” she declared, realising as she said it that it wasn't true. She could look forward to that fizzing anticipation, to waking up with a chest full of embers again. Not now, and maybe not even soon, but someday.

It wasn't like she didn't know lots of good people, she thought, as they got to their feet.

Sometimes they weren't even the ones you expected.

“Thank you, Kolivan. I'll prepare a report for the rest of the Coalition. Are you planning on staying here long?”

“A little while. There's a lot of planning we need to do yet. Earth will need help.”

“We're very grateful for your assistance.”

“Of course.” He nodded and turned to go. He was halfway down the corridor before she had the nerve to speak again.

“A bad influence?” she asked.

He looked over his shoulder. “I wanted to bring down the Galra Empire,” he said. “How much worse can you get?”

 


End file.
